This contribution wants to explore the evolution of the Responsibility to Protect (‘R2P’) doctrine in relation to the protection of cultural heritage from intentional destruction. Cultural heritage brings together international and national interests; as international instruments now suggest, its protection requires international cooperation. However, the applicability of R2P to cultural heritage becomes significantly murky when it is the State government, in which the heritage is housed, that explicitly orders its destruction.
This talk explores how the R2P doctrine applies in such cases. More generally, it unpacks the scope and limits of the R2P doctrine in the framework of cultural heritage law. Can the doctrine of the Responsibility to protect extend to both tangible and intangible cultural heritage? Does the R2P doctrine extend its scope in case of destruction of the cultural heritage in times of peace?
Mariafrancesca Cataldo is a lawyer specialising in international law, cultural heritage law, and comparative law. She graduated in law from the La Sapienza University in Rome and is enrolled in the Rome Bar Association. After her degree, she worked as an intern in the UNHCR Protection Unit in Belgrade. She is currently a PhD candidate at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (Italy). Her project, undertaken under the supervision of Professor Lorenzo Casini, studies the application of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine in the protection of cultural heritage.